Jeb Bush Should Run

Steve Benen thinks that maybe it makes sense for Jeb Bush to wait and try to run in 2016 rather than 2012. My advice to Jeb is the same as my advice to John Thune—unless the issue is that you don’t want to be president, there’s no time to run quite like the present. It’s true that a “Bush fatigue” issue will be a possible problem in 2012, but it’s not really a problem that will go away in 2016. What’s more, something I should have said explicitly in the Thune post is that obviously Barack Obama might lose in 2012, in which case there is no 2016 GOP nomination to run for.
Something everyone should consider, more broadly, is that the 2010 midterms brought a bumper crop of Republican governors into office. Right now the field of prominent statewide GOP officeholders looks pretty thin, so your former Massachusetts governors and undistinguished South Dakota Senators look like okay candidates. But unless 2014 is a banner year for Democrats, the likelihood is that by 2016 there will be a lot of experienced Republican governors, one or two of whom might make formidable contenders.

Related

If it were up to former US President George W. Bush, a third member of the Republican family dynasty -- his younger brother Jeb -- would run for the White House. Jeb Bush, the former two-term governor of Florida, has acknowledged he has not ruled out the idea of a 2016 presidential candidacy. "I hope Jeb runs," his older brother told CNN on Thursday. "I think he would be a great president.

When Jeb Bush first ran for governor of Florida in 1994, his father had recently been booted out of the White House and the fortysomething son very much wanted to be seen as his own man. So, when it came time to design his bumper stickers, he went with a red background and “Jeb!” in chunky white letters.

Jeb Bush hails from Texas and lives in Florida, so he’s got a pretty good tan going on.
The brother of one president and son of another, George W. Bush and George H.W. Bush, is pretty much as white as old, white Republicans can get. Yet, on a 2009 voter registration form obtained by the New York Times, former Governor Bush identified himself as “Hispanic.”